LadyMouse

by Joel Lane

The year is 2083 and Disney has been under the thumb of the UTX megacorporation for ten years. Disasters have plagued the world and a group of unlikely heros lead by the Replicant Gadget Hackwrench might just save the world, though death surround them all

1. Identity Crisis

Lady Mouse

Prologue

The year is 2083A.D. and the ocean has raised 91 feet due to the melting of the permafrost releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Corporations came and merged and grew. Populations of construction mega-corporations pulled together to stem the ocean's tide of flooding. Death came in the form of a plague in 2068 and scourged the Earth's primates. Most of the great apes and some of the monkeys and one half of humans died.; it was air-borne and was thought it came from the Lefrene Comet that passed near Earth in 2067 . Newer chipsets let the production of robots take up the enormous burden of saving the world and most people believe that this is a good thing. Most people that believe these things were wrong.

Chapter 1 Identity Crisis

Now:

Her large, luminous blue eyes scanned the storm-wracked skies for Milo's air-car. A flash of lightning revealed the quartet of figures about 60 feet from her. Three of them were vaguely insectoid and bronze in color ,built like man-sized preying mantises . The last was a man-shaped machine with glowing laser-red eyes. That flash revealed that she had run out of time.

The UTX Medical Industries building in Chicago had proven to be a twenty-eight floor dead-end. She had gotten inside without problem, but then had tripped a 'silent' alarm. Well, silent to all except to one with hearing like hers. She had managed to make it back to the roof quickly enough and she had hoped the football field wide , octagonal, roof would afford enough cover to hide in until her ride could show up for her. Looking around in the rain, told Gadget one thing—she was out of time.

The hunters had closed in on her trail. Her heart leapt into her throat as she shook from fear and fatigue. Gadget slid out backward from her hiding place on all fours from under a satellite antenna into the pouring rain. Her long naked tail twitched as the rain hit it, and her radar-dish ears did the same as the rain drowned out her super-sensitive hearing. She was soaked to the skin instantly in the driving downpour, the cool water pouring through her tank top and soaking her 'elasto-jeans'..

The sleek shark-form of the air-car purred over-head and glided to a landing on the elevator bank-winch roof. A figure slid out of the vehicle as the door raised up.

"Gadget? Are you there?" Milo strained to see ANYTHING moving through the night-haze and pouring flood falling from the sky. Being saddled by normal human senses made him blind as a bat in the shadow of the huge glowing red'UTX Medical Sciences' sign on the front of the building.

The hunters skulked into the blood-colored shadows as Milo came out from the air-car. The hunters now slowly closed up around him. The humanoid chaser brought it's sub-machine gun up toward Milo's silhouette and aimed with a laser sight. Gadget saw Milo's back clearly through the rain. He was as oblivious to his impending doom as her hunters were oblivious to her. Her options had evaporated.

The rain pounded like her running foot-steps across the wet gravel roof as she launched into motion in a flash. She hefted the sledge-hammer and spun in the air as a mantis-like captroid sprang out from her right side from behind the huge air-conditioning machinery on the roof. The hammer smashed into the knife-blade like sensors on it's head, shattering them into a million bright fragments of crystal metal. The robot staggered and collapsed. The mouse-girl's blonde hair spread out into a fan as she fought for her footing on the rain-slick rooftop. Her boots lost the fight and she spilled backwards onto the rounded, wet gravel. The chaser just missed her with a burst of capture rounds which whined over her supine form, perforating the satellite antenna behind her with a jack-hammer sound.. The two captroids behind her, cut away to the left and right, quickly flanking her. The humanoid chaser in black ceramic armor leapt with easy cat-like grace up to the top of the A/C unit.

"Surrender or be destroyed. You are rogue and malfunctioning. Surrender now!" The voice ordered in a cold, emotionless tone. She leapt to her feet with a quick surge of might.

Her heart was pounding in her chest like a air-hammer as she back-peddled toward the roof-edge, her eyes raking the robots flanking her. "Golly! You don't give a girl much of a choice, do you,?" She asked in a breathless, high-pitched voice. "I am my own person! I am free! Get stuffed....you...you JERKS!"

The one unit she had hit, clambered back to it's feet in time to catch a burst of 4mm neeedler rounds from Milo's machine pistol right into its Doorway-CPU and it fell sprawling. He leapt off the Elevator-winch roof to the main roof below. He landed with an unceremonious 'thud' on the waterlogged roof-top below, scattering gravel everywhere , skidding to his butt and cursing.

The captroid unit on the left rushed her and lunged to envelope her in it's padded arms. She snap-kicked its left arm, blocking it and she swung the sledge-hammer into the right shoulder of the dark bronze mecha . The joint broke under the strike and the unit fell to the roof-top gravel with a crash. Lightning struck the cell-phone tower on the far end of the roof sending a jolt of electricity into soaked roof and everyone on it. Milo yelled loudly and fell back down jolted and stinging.

The right captroid unit fell over for a moment as it's power source was momentarily overcome and the chaser-figure in the armor was jolted off the A/C unit onto the small blonde figure below. Gadget Hackwrench, a replicant made by UTX international, was knocked to the roof below the huge dark armored chaser. It's sub-machine-gun fell from it's grip and into the lit, rain-soaked street below. It's red laser sight flashed like a strobe light as it spun down the twenty-eight floors to the desolate street.

Gadget lost her sledge-hammer to the rain-slick gravel of the roof edge. She gathered her feet up under him to throw him off. He grabbed her by the throat and drew his "electro-harpoon knife".

She screamed,"No! Don't!" As he stabbed it downward at her face. She caught it in her right forearm instead. She screamed in pain and fear as the harpoon-knife slid between the ceramic bones of her forearm, the point coming out just an inch from the end of her nose. The twin points sparked brightly before her eyes. She kicked reflexively and sent him flying over her head, off the roof.

She faintly heard Milo screaming her name as she entered a moment of freefall.

The chaser kept his grip on the knife and that caused her to slide off the roof as well. Gadget screamed loudly as she just caught herself by the left hand on the building gutter. A huge fall of water from the gutter spilled down onto her face causing her to choke explosively. The pain in her right forearm caused her to almost black-out.

"Surrender or be destroyed", the chaser intoned..

The gutter pulled loose from the building where she held on to it and it started a dangerous droop toward the street far below. She gaped in fear, then glared downward.

"You are a STUPID machine!" She screamed loudly and kicked viciously at it's head. Her gloved left hand pulled at the gutter with all her might. The chaser shifted around below her. It pulled itself up to get a better purchase on her. It grabbed her right leg and drew heavily on the knife handle.

The gutter pulled off the sky-scraper with a loud screech and spilled them toward the glistening pavement twenty-eight floors below. Gadget gulped air and pulled her harpoon pistol from the small of her back, left-handed. Not having an angle of attack on the UTX medical complex, she fired it across the street at the huge, dark, abandoned Amtex South Bank building that stood like a huge 40 story tombstone.

The take-up reel whizzed as the molecular monofilament line was braked to non-movement in the gun. Gadget saw the black, dirty banks of windows glittering in the Chicago city lights as they swung up toward her. She moved against the humanoid chaser with all her strength. She let out a little line so they would hit windows and not the concrete dividers She flexed her knees to absorb the impact and clenched her eyes tightly shut and made sure that the hunter took the impact and not her. .

"Surrender or b...," it was interrupted by the crush of exploding glass. They catapulted through the glass and into the interior of the building. She kicked off with all her might, throwing it across the room and through the dry-wall into the corridor outside. She rolled to her feet and holstered her harpoon gun, severing her next-to-last mono-molecular thread. The chaser mecha got to it's feet as she leapt through the weakened drywall into an adjoining office.

The dark robot crashed though the wall board, chasing after her. Gadget's eyes dilated fully as she flipped down her goggles and she ran full out toward the stairs. She reached the stairs and she pelted up them three at a time. Gadget jumped aside as a wall next to her exploded to pieces of wall-board into the darkened stair-well as the chaser reached out to grab at her. She ducked, grabbing her hair down, and raced up the stairs.

The dark armored form shadowed her fleeting form as she ran full out up the long climb to the roof-top of the Amtex South Bank building. Her lungs were gasping and her heart was palpitating after the twenty floor run-up.

Gadget flung herself through the open fire-door at the top. The rest of the stairs up had collapsed from a fire a decade ago. She ran up the side of a wall as the chaser clambered after her. She picked up a piece of steel 3/4 inch rebar from the floor and turned suddenly. She hefted up the rebar into a two-handed grip while she twirled and swept it's feet out from under it.. It fell with a loud clatter and the chaser pointed a fore-arm at her and fired a harpoon. Gadget moved faster than she could imagine. She batted away the harpoon with her mono-molecular gloved right hand.

She cried out in pain as the harpoon nicked the electro-knife handle. She swung the rebar over-hand with her left hand at it's head. With inhuman speed ,it caught the steel bar and pulled it away from Gadget. When it tried to swing it at her, she closed and slipped inside of it's reach and grabbed one of the chaser's arms and flipped it through a hole in the floor. It fell with a crash onto the floor below.

"Gotcha!" Gadget crowed until another harpoon from the mechanism's LEFT arm shot into the ceiling next to her. "Oh that's not fair", she chirped and ran quickly into the rubble leading up to the roof-top as the android pulled itself up to the floor via it's harpoon cable. Gadget adopted a full scrabble, weaving into the soggy, moldy wall-board and concrete slabs and the twisted forest of bent steel rods and supports . She made it to the roof-top of the ruined floors and pulled out her harpoon pistol. One shot left, she noted sourly to herself. Gadget gauged her shot carefully and took aim at the cell-phone tower on the roof of the UTX medical building, twelve floors below her. She could hear Milo's machine pistol firing on that distant rooftop. Gadget braced herself.

Gadget fired her harpoon-pistol as the chaser automaton broke through the rubble with a crash and clatter just behind her. She held the pistol in both hands and ran to the edge at an angle and leapt into space, thumbing the take-up trigger. The chaser almost grabbed her tail as she flew out from the roof, it's ice cold hands just scraping flesh at it's tip.

Gadget flew as if with wings while the take-up reel whirred, whizzing her toward the top of the tower as she swung low around the medical center's roof at an oblique angle from the ruined roof of the abandoned Amtex South Bank building. She swung down to the roof , almost circling the UTX building due to the twelve floor drop in altitude and skidded to a stop as she heard a high-pitched whoosh from the other roof-top. Gadget watched in open-mouth disbelief as a dark silhouette shot into the sky and arced toward her.

"Jump-jets, too? Ah, golly, it's Mil-Spec! Double not fair!"

Gadget ran to get clear of it's decent, which apparently once in the air, it couldn't control. She ran toward the edge of the roof where Milo and the grounded air-car was. She was crossing the huge red neon "UTX MEDICAL SCIENCE BUILDING" sign when it landed on the metal cat-walk with a bone-breaking 'thud' that bent the metal walk-way behind her. It sprang and tackled her and both of them fell down onto the cat-walk and rolled toward the sign-edge on the front of the building. Gadget grabbed an upright railing with her right hand. She screamed loudly as the edgeless knife was driven deeper through her forearm as the robot brought it's greater mass to bear on her.

The chaser had apparently given up on capture since it was going for the throat and neck. It's hands slowly closed on her neck. Gadget had felt the strength of this machine before and knew she was going to die. It would either crush her throat or break her neck. She braced herself for the inevitable, as she punched and kicked it with all her strength. A dark shadow loomed above her with a 4 mm Needler in his human hand.

"Gadj! Duck!" Came the shout out of the darkness.

"AIM HIGHER!" She squeaked in terror as Milo fired a burst of auto-fire which lit up the dark roof-top, barely missing her.

The chaser's head exploded into a puff of fire and sparks in the pouring rain. The limp body of the chaser fell down the length of the building ,through the awning at the front of the building to the street below to shatter into a pattern of used robot parts. Off in the distance came the wail of police sirens.

"Quick! Gadj, Gimme your hand!" he shouted over the thunder and thrust out his hand at her. Her wet form reflected the red light from the sign as if she were soaked in blood. He put down the pistol and grabbed her left hand with desperate strength. Gadget reached up with her right, the knife jammed deep into her forearm, just above the wrist. When she got pulled back up to the cat-walk by her right hand she screamed around clenched teeth as her feet hit the roof-top. Gadget jerked out the "Electro-knife" and stabbed it into the still working captroid as it surged up the stairs- at them. It jerked as she thumbed the trigger after penetrating it's carapace. It fell off the sign into a heap and kept twitching. Gadget pressed her left gloved hand against the wounds in her right forearm.

"Golly", she gasped and she staggered along with her rescuer,"THAT could have been me back there! Milo. MILO! I'm out of body-power. Less than one percent charge remaining" , she gasped out as she was towed by him. She couldn't stop shuddering as she was pulled back to Dr. Fairweather's air-car. Milo Finch guided her, while in something of a daze himself. She stumbled on fatigued and shaking legs across the roof and climbed the access ladder up to the top of the elevator-winch roof to the air-car and slid into the passenger's side, blood pouring onto her lap from her arm.

"Oh, crap! I forgot my gun. Be right back",he remarked feeling nauseated and guilty for being late to the rendezvous. He pressed the powder-blue jump-suit that he hung over the passenger seat to the wounds. "Erm–keep pressure on it."

He ducked out and clambered back to where he left his pistol. Gadget shook her head in unbelieving amazement as she applied pressure to the gaping holes in her forearm. She yelled after him,"Hurry up ,Milo! The police are on their way!"

He was back in a flash of lightning which made him flinch and climbed soggily into the pilot's chair and strapped in.

"Jeezus! He really pegged you!" He moaned softly as he jerked the idling air-car back into the cottony grey sky. The police air-cruisers arrived seconds after the shark-profiled Boeing air-car vanished into the low flight-ceiling of lightning wracked clouds. The winds jerked them around as they climbed above the storm. She wrapped her right fore-arm with her jump-suit. She clenched her teeth and wept softly from the pain. He fire-walled the throttle to give them some distance from what had just happened.

"Soon as we land somewhere, I'll do first-aid on you. ....Erm, any other pains or injuries ,Gadj?"He asked softly trying to look at her around his now fogging glasses. The water running from his black hair kept running into his eyes. He scanned dials and gauges to insure that they had lost their pursuers.

Her tail twitched spasmodically as she smiled around the pain. She was moved by his caring., "Um ...no injuries. It wasn't a complete waste. Not completely."

She fell silent from the conflicting emotions that buffeted her choked her into silence. After a long moment of silence, broken by sporadic lightning and thunder, she said slowly and quietly, the strain of her emotion making her voice crackle, "Milo–I didn't have time to get a positive identification . Other than one thing. My brain DOES belong to a human-being. Human DNA. The records are sealed. I couldn't break the encryptions in time before the alarm went off."

"Now," he started slowly, "you are a live brain in the body of a replicant cartoon-mouse girl from Rescue Rangers, named Gadget Hackwrench. Jeezus! What happened to you, girl?"

She rocked over her injured right arm and tried not to sniffle. "Golly...I don't know," she whispered in a tortured tone. The tears ran down her face as she whispered, "I don't remember anything other than being Gadget Hackwrench. I remember all my programming. I remember Chip and Dale and the New Rescue Rangers. I DO NOT remember being human. I don't even remember ever wanting to be human" She was crying and feeling embarrassed about it. She was SO tired her mind was whirling so fast, she could barely think of the thoughts speeding through her mind. So much had happened and so many people had died. She looked out the window at the city lights of Chicago through the scattering clouds as they headed south back to the island of Orlando and the Disney complex adjacent to it.

She wanted all the answers, not the mysteries connected with it. Now she had some answers, but those answers spawned a million more questions. She fought for consciousness. She tried to stay awake on the flight back, but a combination of blood-loss, low body-power, emotional shock and fatigue took their toll on her small body and she lost consciousness looking out the window.

Then:

Milo looked out the window, then had stepped out of the air-bus onto the tarmac of the Transportation and Ticket Center of the Magic Kingdom. The day was hot and the high-tide past the sea-wall was restless in its movement. He shouldered his bag and headed for the "Employees Only" sign. He was thrilled to ride on an actual "air-bus" people-mover from Orlando International Airport . It's fans lifted it's massive bulk back into the air as it moved toward Epcot Center's auto park to pick up out-bound passengers by the monorail terminal.. Air-cars and vectored thrust aerodynes were just the thing for ferrying people into tight places. The ultra rich had air-cars, but ambulances ,fire and police had right-of-way over all others. The perk of riding on a people-mover was a real, though all to short, thrill.

He heard it was a rule that Walt Disney World should only be approached during high-tide while the muddy tidal-flat outside Orlando, Florida was hidden below the globally warmed ocean pounding on the new sea-wall. The seas had raised ninety feet and had drowned many of the world's cities and had brought the sea to Disney World's doorstep. True, the sea at high tide was only a few feet deep on the east side of Disney World , but it caused a panic enough for MMI (another subsidiary of UTX International ) to build a huge sea-wall around the combined parks and set up locks to the various lagoons and water-parks on the inside of the complex.

He came up to another doorstep that read," Welcome to UTX's Walt Disney World. Please have your ID worn openly at all times in the park."

The guard was a UTX model 210 humanoid android. It had the people-skills of a coffee-pot and was featureless silver and black looking very much like a male department store mannequin . It was very high-tech looking and stood there like a toy-soldier of inhuman strength and humorless mien. He came up to it and presented his employee ID card.

A pretty black woman dressed in a blue coverall with a Disney/UTX logo and name tag marked 'Becky' and a "Roxanne" replicant from one of the "Goofy" series sets of characters, dressed in a sun-dress and her short red hair waving provocatively , walked up the side-walk to him. They listened in amusement as he was launching into the third recitation of his identity.

"My name is Milo Jason Finch! I AM expected here! I am a new employee. Call somebody! A human!" He was a mid-twenties pale-skinned young man with large brown eyes and a narrow nose. He had a high forehead and looked around irritated , his brows furrowed. "Hey, you!" He called to the black woman. "Help me pass this dunce, here."

"To much time around A.I.s ?" She frowned and smirked, "You aren't very polite. You should REALLY work on your people skills, you know?"

He looked shocked and muttered while turning red,"Sorry. I'm frustrated." He looked back up at her and said in a low voice,"Can you help?"

The UTX model 210 intoned in a flat computer voice,"You must wait here. Do not advance without authorization. I have no record of you as an employee. Please wait here. A supervisor has been called."

The Roxanne replicant walked forward and looked at the android. "Authorization A-E-13522128."

"A-E confirmed," it said and moved aside.

"Auto-Entry, feh. Bone-head!" She snapped at the Android as she put out a hand at him. "Let me take your bag", the replicant girl said. He was shocked and in a startled trance handed over his bag. She strode off, calling over her shoulder at him, "Hi! I'm Roxanne-5. I'm your guide to UTX's Disney World. Follow me to the employee lodgings." He never seen a non-human replicant before in the real world and was bothered by how...HUMAN-like she moved. How her hips moved and her breasts bounced. How she simulated anger at the dumb android.

"My name is Becky Ramierez," said the pretty black girl. She looked like she was about to bust out laughing. "You DO get used to being around them. I swear." She shook his hand and slapped him on the upper arm. "According to your test scores, you are assigned to my team once you get your bearings. The 'Human' Resources agent will conduct you through orientation once you get dressed for work. The next two weeks will be tough. Good luck!"

"Erm, oh, ah...Oh-kay!" He muttered as he tried to watch where Roxanne-5 had walked off to with his bag. He chased off to catch up with her as a door opened in a wall further down the entry-way. A number of people spilled out and gawked at him.

"NOOBIE!" One called out in a friendly tone."Hey! I'm Jerry Reynolds, Senior tech and ladies man and SOOPER-genius!" He pumped Milo's hand enthusiastically and nodded his tousled brown hair in a friendly and intimate way while grinning.

"Super-idiot jerk-off, more like it,"snapped out Becky with a smirk.

"Ignore the 'queen of mean', mister dude! Catch you later, M'man! I have a Beauty to save from a Beast! IF you know what I mean?" He winked at Milo in the most exaggerated way imaginable and blew a kiss at Becky who sneered at him as she went past him into the break-room.

"Hey, he's cute", called one of the girls looking at Milo.

He was swept up in the moment as effusive greetings rang out, surrounding him. He never had shook so many hands or received so many back-slaps in such a short period of time in his life. They were gone as quickly as they had come. He saw Roxanne-5 tapping her foot at the end of the hallway as he untwisted himself.

"Sorry!" He called out to her. She huffed and entered the elevator with a sway of her hips.

"Employee Quarters," she announced quietly.

The elevator sank below sea-level into the masonry upon which the Magic Kingdom sat. Milo fidgeted and tried not to stare at the replicant. She heaved her chest at him when she sighed.

"You...appear to have a question," she said, looking him up and down.

"NO!" He gasped,"Well, yes. I guess I do." He blushed. "Damn. WHY are you so sexy?"

"You find me sexy?" She asked with an insouciant air.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm his pulse,"Erm....ah......well a bit. Are ALL you replicant characters all 3-p-r'ed ?"

"No. Only less than 20% of the replicants in UTX's Disney World are quote 3-P-R s unquote," she said in a flat voice. Her eyes seemed to twinkle in amusement. That bothered him more than her 'sexier-than-Venus' act. He knew that the Disney 3P-R Character Replicants were the most advanced hardware AND software for androids on the planet but he never in his wildest dreams expected to meet one THIS advanced so soon.

The elevator door opened to reveal a heavy-set middle aged man with a short salt-and-pepper beard and horn-rimmed glasses. He held a palm-HDTV viewer and looked up from it and nodded toward one of the seemingly omnipresent cameras. " 'Particular Peculiar Programmed Responses-- The basis for an emotional response from otherwise unemotional machinery. A perfect mimicry of some real-seeming turns of emotion to facilitate a working communication between machines and human-beings' ", he recited from memory in a deep voice. He stepped back to allow Roxanne-5 and Milo to exit. The heavy, bear of a man thrust out a hand toward Milo and chuckled, "Welcome to UTX, Mister Finch."

"Oh my GOD! You are Jules Fairweather! The nobel prize winner in robotics in 2068 just before ...the ..uh plague.", Milo trailed off in embarrassment.

Dr. Fairweather smiled sadly and patted Milo's back as they walked down the hallway. "Yes, Mr. Finch. My wife and son died in it."

Milo said quietly,"My Father and Mother died in it. I lived with my Aunt." Milo stopped dead in his tracks."Sorry. It was fifteen years ago and we still end up talking about it. " Milo looked thoughtful and asked,"'Welcome to UTX'?"

"Mr Matamoras lets me play with toys here. He would turn the whole world into a whore-house if someone didn't stand in his way, at least a little bit. More money than god and the morals of an alley-cat. ", Jules spat out bitterly. "Things changed when Maximillian Matamoras bought the place up. He's driven mad by his successes. He saved the world and lost his soul. He created the Doorway quantum chip and even the Doorway Operating System, but that still isn't enough....",Jules trailed off, dropping his gesticulating hands by his sides, the rising tones of his anger fading off down the hallway.

"Im sorry ,my boy. I'm an old man filled with to many bad experience and bitterness by the movers and shakers of the world. Don't mind me. I just wanted to meet you. You are a real find for this place.", he said with a smile coming to his face.

"We have made all manner of innovation in the software and wetware functions of the replicants....as you have already noticed. We DO have our own set of problems though. Well.... Welcome to Disney World. Things are different now. We need your help."

Now:

"Help me",Gadget gasped out in a whisper. Her arm hurt. Her whole body was sore from exertion. Her large blue eyes snapped open to stare at the IV drip of replacement blood over her right side. Her large ears flicked around to the sound sources in the room as her tail trembled against her legs. Gadget checked on her internal reserves . She was out of body power. Her bio-power was barely stable. She felt cold and very weak. A Latino nurse came into view and looked down on her with a mixture of expressions sympathy and curiosity.

"Where's Milo?" Gadget asked quietly, her head pounding and the room swimming around her. She noticed that her right arm was bandaged and she had a weird cold feeling from it.

"The man who brought you in? He's outside. We just got you transferred to a private room, Miss ...Gadget?" She bit off that last with a look of curious hesitancy.

"Where am I at? I....", she choked off her questions realizing that she was in danger from her words. "I'm confused."

"You are in the Macon, Georgia, Emergency clinic. What do you remember? Do you wish to make a statement to the police? It looks like you were stabbed in the arm. It's a pretty fierce puncture wound."

Gadget quailed at the mention of police. She certainly did NOT want to talk to the police. She instead licked her dry lips and whispered, "Where is the man who brought me in? I really need to talk to him. I'm really foggy. OK?"

The nurse paused and said, "He's right outside. I'll send him in. I'll get some forms for you to fill out. We don't get many total body replacements here." The nurse bit of her questions. She softly asked the wounded girl in the hospital bed, "Why a cartoon mouse girl?"

Gadget sat quietly for a moment and said with a shake of her head and a wry smile, "It gives me a prehensile tail, but I don't look like a monkey." The nurse blinked in surprise and turned to hide her bemused smile, shook her head and left.

Several moments later, Milo came in as Gadget's eyelids fluttered while she fought off her own fatigue. She slapped her cheeks with her left hand to keep herself awake.

"MILO", she began urgently and lost her train of thought. He came around to her left side and squeezed her hand.

"You aren't a machine, Y'know?" He said it ironically pleasantly with an undercurrent of concern.

"Oh yes? Golly, I suppose not. Live brain and all. Mostly machine. Cyborg bodily replacement. No power for that, too. Gosh.....what....did..you tell them.....here I mean?" She fumbled out the words tiredly as if she was crushed down by an enormous weight . She weakly gripped his hand and tried hard not to faint from fatigue

He frowned, seeing how weak she was. In hushed ,urgent tones he whispered,"Gadget, We have to GO. Can you walk?"

She shook her large head and whispered back weakly,"No. Body power is depleted. Need a recharge. Bio-power is marginal but...very, very low. If I over-exert, I risk a catastrophic system-wide crash that will be fatal. I'll die. Leave me and run for it. Save your...self."

He looked shocked and tightened his grip on her hand. " NO. It IS my fight because you are my friend and...well... it is the right thing to do." He looked around the room. "Look. They got you topped off with blood. You are exhausted! Jeez, anybody would be. But!" He broke off, and let go of her hand. He reached for her IV and whispered tersely ,"We HAVE to GO! Jeez...they notified your next of kin. They I-D'ed you from your DNA fingerprint." He turned off the IV drip as the import of his words jolted her back to full consciousness.

"I have NEXT OF KIN? Who is it? WHO am I?" She awoke at that. The feel of her vice-like grip on his arm made him wince in pain as her voice raised up in volume and frequency.

"Keep your voice down! Dammit!" He pulled out the IV needle as she gasped in pain.

"OW", she glared weakly at him as she sank weakly back into the bed. "Who?" She whispered raggedly , grabbing him by the shirt, her strength waning away. He bandaged the IV stick area. She frowned at him and whispered tersely,"How did they unseal the records? Who am I?"

"I don't know," he bit out through clenched teeth as he hefted her up in his arms. He was thankful that she a long gown on. She was four foot ten inches tall, but weighed almost one hundred thirty pounds of solid muscle. He was out of shape and exhausted and knew it.

Her blonde hair swept down against his chest as her oversized head lolled under his chin. She was completely limp as a rag-doll. She complained without strength,"Golly, I'm so tired. Gosh."

He opened the door a crack softly and waited nervously until the nurse went by. He strode into the hall and went toward the door out. At the corner, Gadget tapped his face with her left hand and waved him back. He panicked and ducked into a room where a young woman sat surprised, holding her burned hand before a chilling unit on a table next to a sink.

She pulled up and asked tersely," Who the hell are you?" She stared at Gadget in wonder and concern. "What...who?" The woman tried hard not to stare. She stared anyway at the scruffy-looking, tired, bruised mouse-girl in sternly terrified arms of this battered looking young man

Gadget gave the young woman her most luminous smile and said softly,"We must have gotten the wrong room. I fell from a ladder and tore my arm open. I'm sorry." Her large ears twitched as she scanned the hall for the identifiable noise of nurse-footsteps. She looked up at Milo and whispered, "Now. Way clear."

Milo opened the door and looked outside into the hallway . To the girl he said quickly, "Erm, sorry again and stuff. Bye." He slid out into the hall, carrying Gadget in his arms.

Moments later, the young woman looked thunderstruck as the nurse came in to check on her. "You'll never believe THIS...", the woman began.

A moment later, the harried angry nurse barreled around the corner and shouted at Milo's back,"HEY, YOU! STOP!" Milo ran flat out and hit the outside door with his shoulder. It flipped open and he ran out into the parking lot. He spotted the air-car and he ran pell-mell toward it .

"OPEN!" His shouted command was heard and the door mechanism responded by opening the doors on the sleek air-car. Milo caught out of the corner of his eyes that security was closing in on him.

"Stop! POLICE!" The shouts came up from behind him while he ran full speed.

He jumped in and shouted, "CLOSE AND LOCK!" The security guards and Police pounded on the doors while he instructed the machine to take off. The turbines whined to life as a brown-haired woman with delicate features ran up to the passenger-side door and looked in.

She and Gadget locked eyes in shock, as the vehicle started to take off. Gadget reflexively reached out for the woman as she fell away from sight into the darkness of the night. Milo gasped like a beached whale and Gadget couldn't tell whether he was wet from sweating in strain or the weather earlier. He set Dr Fairweather's stealth cloak to hide them from sensors and Gadget pulled the thin hospital robe tighter to her and hugged herself shivering.

On the ground, the woman with the brown hair and delicate features went inside to inquire about what just happened. They wouldn't talk to her til she remarked," My name is Miriam Hackensack. YOU people notified ME that my daughter was here with a injured arm and appeared confused without her identifiable face. Was that mouse–looking thing girl... my dead daughter? I was told by UTX Industries that she died in the Yucatan while working for them FIVE years ago. What is the meaning of this?"

Then:

He muttered in irritation, "What is the meaning of this? Miriam?"

Nathan was a kindly man with a high forehead and fastidious manner. He was bronze and beautiful and unfortunately knew that about himself. Miriam detested vain people. Now she was with one. She sighed heavily, again.

He continued,"Honey, I just don't see the attraction for these children's rides. Let's go hang-gliding if you want a real thrill." He chuckled and pulled her close to keep her from being swept away by the swirling Disney-World crowds. She frowned and walked on til she saw something that transfixed her.

The sign touted ,"Gadget's Wild Flight! Take wing with one of Disney's Favorite Characters as she takes you on an aerial tour of Disney World and the UTX Entertainment Park Area!"

Nathan snorted," 'Favorite Character' HA! Never heard of him. They need some new ones, two hundred year old mice are passe' ,you know.

"Gadget is a SHE, and only ONE hundred years old. Let's see...there was the original series one hundred years ago , the 'New Rescue Rangers' back in the 2020's and then that awful C-G series by herself, 'Lady Mouse' back in the late 2060's. She was one of my daughter's three favorite characters from Disney. She, Ariel–the little mermaid to you, and Alif the elf -maid",Miriam announced testily as she moved up to the gate.

Nathan looked aghast as he fell into line behind her. "Is this what this trip is about? Bringing up memories about your daughter? Miriam! For god's sake–let her go. This isn't healthy", he said quietly, as to not cause a scene.

"You said it wasn't healthy for me to have a second childhood either! You don't have to come along on the ride if you don't want to! Nathan, you are really ....",she chose her next words carefully since she felt like a volcano about to blow,"...annoying me. Stop it. This is about you and me....about what the future might hold for us. ALL we have done here is fight. I'm sick of it.", she would have said more, but was interrupted by a talking mouse replicant at the ticket gate.

"Hiya! I'm Sparky! You two together to ride the Ranger-wing into the wild, blue yonder?" He looked eager. They had gotten the full spiel since it was the off season and there were no lines to cut the spiel down for speediness sake's . Miriam was amazed at how life-like he looked and acted. He was tall and thin with a wild shock of brown hair. He ran a hand through his hair and smiled at them hoping.

She cut a hard glance at Nathan and snipped out,"We are together?"

He 'harumphed" and dug out his card for swiping. "Yes. I would suppose ."

She chuckled and remarked with impish glee, "You are so old fashion!" She waved her arm at the credit receiver. It read her money imprint off a chip in her bracelet. She went through the turnstile and waited for him.

They boarded the "Ranger-Wing", a tilt-rotor aircraft, very much like a V-22 Osprey, favored by the U.S. military half a century earlier. It had been modified heavily. She noticed that a panel was off near the front of the inside cabin and the pilot was tinkering in it. Nathan said in alarm, "Flight cancelled! Down for repairs! Lets go hang-gliding now.?"

Gadget Hackwrench, mouse aviator, and tinkerer straightened up and looked startled at the five people boarding the 'Wing". "Golly! I'm late. I mean you're early! I mean...No problems! Just resetting the thermostat in the air conditioner, is all. No engine work, this close to a flight.!"

She stepped forward and thrust out a freshly wiped off hand to Nathan and said," Hello, I'm Gadget."

He looked as if she would bite him and give him rabies and he said sourly,"These things give me the creeps! " He sat down and glowered at the dirty hand.

"Nathan! It's all just part of the act, you dufus! " Miriam said in a rising tone of irritation. She smiled down at Gadget's face. "Hi, I'm Miriam, that sourpuss is Nathan, my boyfriend." Gadget looked ...strange. Her huge blue eyes glistened with a sudden turn of emotion.

Almost a look of recognition. "Golly, I've seen you in the park before? Right?" Gadget's tone was almost pleading. Miriam was put off by the intense probing gaze from the mouse-girl. She didn't expect such intelligence behind those eyes or the warm strength in her grip.

"You must have. I know I NEVER met anyone like you before", Miriam said intently with a smile.

Gadget seemed crestfallen and then greeted the other passengers, happily enough. The other three passengers were typical tourists except for one young man in a black tee shirt with a rock group logo on it and a smell of alcohol about him.

When she went to greet him, he tried to kiss her. She pushed him away gently and said,"I'm sorry. I don't know you. Stop it."

He grabbed her butt with one hand and a breast with another and muttered to her, "C'mon , baby. Just lock your ankles around my neck and let's get the plan MOVIN'!" He thrust his hips at her provocatively. For a reasons she couldn't name, Miriam stood up and clenched her fists.

"You take your hands off of her, this instant!" Miriam shouted with anger. She was shaking with rage as she watched the young man start in surprise.

He grinned at Miriam and said,"Ice-age it! Chill extreme! It IS just a bot with HUGE ta-tas–", his grope was interrupted by Gadget stiff-arming him into and OVER the front seats.

"WHOA!" He shouted in surprise and sat stunned, starring at Gadget as she stood there in a defensive martial arts stance.

She was beet-red and said in a growl," I SAID 'stop'! You don't listen well, do you?" She straightened up and took a deep breath and looked at Miriam in shame. "I'm sorry. Sorry..."she turned to everyone else and gave a chagrined smile of embarrassment and continued ," that you all had to see that." She looked at the young man. "I'm going to call security now. You should go with Sparky there." She indicated the mouse-man that just came in, hearing raised angry voices from inside.

"I...need to finish my pre-flight walk-around and wash up and we'll be ready to go." She walked to the back of the plane where she was silhouetted against the bright sunlight outside and looked back at Miriam and nodded to her. Miriam couldn't see the mouse-girl's face, but imagined that Gadget smiled at her.

Miriam sat down and Nathan said,"What did you think you would accomplish..."

"Nathan–shut up. I don't want to hear it," she said with finality . The finality of their relationship, Miriam was sure.

Several moments later , a different Gadget came in. Miriam was sure that this one was a completely different one. The look in this one's eyes was the look of a people-smart machine, NOT the look of a smart person. Miriam was confused and bothered by the whole incident. She just didn't have the words to say why.

"That is all I can remember", Miriam told the security officer and the technician who awaited them when they set back down at the lift-port. "She isn't in any trouble is she? She was SO ....uhm....real, I guess. That is what got me so mad. That boy pawing at her like a doll. Maybe she is....but....I don't know. She...IT was just like a real person," Miriam finished lamely.

"Thanks, Ma'am. We don't have any further questions...", Ricky Patel, the security man, looked over at Milo Finch , who looked confused and out of his element, "for you. Thank you for your co-operation . Please accept the Disney offer to pick up your dinner tab anywhere in the UTX/Disney entertainment complex tonight as apology for this incident."

She nodded and left to join Nathan.

Milo went over to the HVAC panel and took it off. He whistled and looked over at Ricky. Ricky Patel was dark skinned with jet black eyes and smooth skin, about the same age as Milo. Ricky came over and asked wryly ,"It isn't a bomb is it? I get off in an hour and REALLY don't want to be blown up."

Milo said with a smirk,"No. It is something that blows...just not UP!" Milo p robed the thermostat and some of the other parts. "It's really top-notch work. My wrist-top just looked through this vehicle's work and service logs. This section doesn't look like this section."

Ricky said in surprise,"What? In English, please!" He looked into the panel at the precise lines of machine cut parts and precision welds. He looked at the diagrams Milo showed him and at the panel he was already looking at.. "What in HELL? It's completely different."

'Not yet required for service scheduled maintenance' the panel diagram showed in yellow on Milo's projection screen.

Milo looked at him and remarked slowly, his neck-hair prickled," We haven't had it LONG enough to have this section worked on outside the factory!"

Ricky coughed nervously and scuffed his feet. "Well beats me. The bots can't work on the parts. They aren't programmed to. That looks like factory work. They probably screwed up the records and are showing a civilian model and these are military issue parts or something viced on the freaking versa." He shook his head. "Compared with one of the bots attacking a guest for groping her, this is small potatoes."

Milo frowned and said sternly, "The situation is not an attack. The perpetrator was NOT injured and the unit in question acted perfectly within park guidelines for human staff."

"HUMAN staff, Milo! Human! Not replicant behavior codes. She acted like a human, not as a park automaton. They ain't human, buddy boy. Pocahontas is not a real girl any more than Pinochio is! Handle it," Ricky huffed throwing up his hands. "I am convinced. This is a TECHNICAL matter, not security. Pull her and do some circuit-testing or such to keep her from punching or shooting a guest that brushes up against her. Gadgets One, Two and Four were in the vicinity. Five is the one who took over the flight from whichever of those three...AND I expect a threat assessment on this malfunctioning replicant by the end of the week. Look, Milo...I," the high-pitched beep of his cell-phone went off, cutting off his further comment . "Gotta go!" Ricky ran off talking about a shop-lifter near the lift-port and in pursuit.

Milo ran his hands over the welds in the HVAC panel and inspected the blower cover. "This is HAND-done. Not a computer-weld." He had to meet with Dr. Fairweather about this.

"They are learning AI's", Dr Fairweather said simply with an unplaceable hard tone in his voice . "They do pick up things during their day's interaction. The Doorway-CPU's are matrix memory chips with as many connections as the human brain. The Doorway Operating System is adaptive. These things are strange and must be investigated. Obviously? "

"Of course, Dr Fairweather", Milo exclaimed in confusion.

Dr. Fairweather steepled his fingers and sighed," Look, Milo–it's time for you to take some initiative. You have done some brilliant work these past months ,but you need to seize the day. You have stumbled into 'terra incognita' in truth. You not only need to find the rogue unit....you need to discover why she acted the way she did."

Jules Fairweather leaned back in his padded leather chair and looked sourly at Milo. "NONE of the Gadget units are admitting fault or involvement in this incident. That means that one is lying. I want you to do a 3-P-R test on all five units and try to find out which is faulty."

Milo turned red and he stuttered out,"You mean you w-want me t-to do... I mean to have sex with...?" Jules looked surprised and outraged and slapped his hand down onto the desk.

"NO! Good lord! No, boy. That is a horny first year student response! I did expect better from you. Do something provocative and see if you get punched," Jules remarked with an exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows and amused smile. He couldn't help but laugh at his younger colleague's consternation. The way Milo fidgeted made Dr. Fairweather laugh.

"Take Jerry, Becky and that new girl...," Jules fumbled with his palm-viewer for a moment,"Chase Victor, ah–that's the name; new girl ,Chase , and form up a team to investigate this anomaly. I don't want to pull all five units unless absolutely necessary. If that is what it takes—do that then. Be decisive– take charge! Come to me with findings–not speculations. You don't have much time. Now scoot ,boy! I have a meeting to go to. Miss Victor should be at the lift-port in fifteen minutes. Be a good lad and toss her off into the deep water." Jules smiled paternally and waved a hand at Milo dismissing him

"Oh...the deep water I'm sinking in right now. SURE! The more the merrier. I might need some help and direction. This is a weird situation", Milo said disheartened.

Jules Fairweather cleared his throat and smiled with a sadness that he didn't explain , "My boy, I'll try to keep you on the right track."

Now:

"GET OFF THE TRACK!" The scream came from all around her. She looked around in fear and horror. She was in a hall of mirrors and was a Gadget-doll. She was naked and lacked genitals and nipples. Her arms and legs had visible joints and she felt like cold plastic. She had no body temperature. She stood on a monorail track and could here the 'whoosh' of the advancing mono-rail.

She knew what was going to happen

She fought her way out of the night-terror with an act of pure will and awoke with a cry of fear and despair. She flailed her arms for a second and looked around in shock.

Grey light poured in on her from the windshield. She was stiff and sore and her mouth felt and tasted like cotton. She stretched and fell back into the seat. Her overly large blue eyes scanned for Milo. She spotted him topping a rise about a hundred yards beyond which was a familiar pair of golden arches.

They were in Macon, Georgia in an unfinished subdivision that Gadget had picked off the map at random, parked in a lot inhabited by rabbits and tall weeds. Gadget felt pulled to pick this spot. She wasn't sure why.

"Mmm, McClowns. Golly, Milo....I want an omelette," she said to herself, feeling moody. "I want my CLOTHES!" She sighed, pulling at her hospital gown in anger. She sat up when another feeling came over her. She leaned forward and scanned the outside of the vehicle in discomfort. "Gosh, I better go."

Milo got as many different things off the breakfast menu he thought she might like. He still didn't know that much about her. The programmed reflexes and responses must be loaded into a sub-processor in her brain somewhere, he considered. He had read about such things in speculative tech articles and some of the cross-over medical articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association .

He had NEVER heard of a total personality transplant. The human brain is NOT a computer and doesn't work like one. It stores information on RNA as well as neural pathways. The technology for such a transference is beyond any practical technology known.

The UTX made Doorway chips were electro-colloidal stochastic parallel processors and that description could describe the operation of the human brain, too. He had read some theoretical pieces by someone about just such a thing, though he couldn't remember who right off. He frowned and hefted the food-bags and started back to the Boeing air-car. He was still lost in thought when he got back the vehicle. He choked on his waffle-stix as he noted that the passenger-side door was open was open and Gadget was long gone.

He ran up in confusion and fear. He put the food down in the seat and looked around, his heart pounding in worry. He looked for tracks in the muddy ground around the air-car and found a small three-toed foot-print. He followed the tracks quickly. He imagined all manner of dreadful things.

She might be delirious or dazed or hallucinating or even worse....she might be running some default program that turned her into a killer cyborg bent on murder and mayhem. He skidded to a stop, spotting her sitting under a tree with her hospital gown up.....

"DO YOU MIND?!?!" Her screech cut through the still morning air like a chainsaw sending all the nesting birds in earshot winging into the sky with loud squawks and cries. Mortified, he turned and ran quickly back to the air-car. He stood there until she wove unsteadily back to the Boeing.

Her face was red and she glared at him and asked in a low angry tone,"What in heck do you call that? Golly ...that was FOOLISH and EMBARRASSING for both of us. On the rainy roof you make enough noise to call down a horde of hunters that I have to get stabbed to save YOU from and then when it matters for privacy's sake for you to call me by name—NOW you play at 'super-ninja'?"

She ran out of wind and sagged against the stream-lined outside of the craft and ran both hands through her hair. "I stink and am filthy from ruin-crawling and wearing a hospital gown and you look like twenty miles of bad road like some homeless guy and we might not get off the ground again because of no power and I look like a mouse, and Ow, my arm hurts," She smiled sadly and started giggling.

"I'm sorry" Milo said solemnly. "I'm not very good at this stuff. I was worried about you and thought you might have wandered off ,out of your head or..," he choked himself off about two seconds to late. He colored a bright pink and took his glasses off and rubbed his face.

She turned and stared at him with a startled look frozen on her child-like face. She started to gasp out a chortle and stuttered out,"M-milo...I AM out of MY head and in a...rent-a-skull. Bought it in MOUSE-TOWN!" She chuckled and rocked back against the sleek fender, putting her hands over her mouth and trying not to cry as well..

"Sorry again," he said and smiled. He laughed and said in a chortle,"I am only human, you know. YOU are the cyborg terminator! Well, four and half foot tall, mouse-girl terminator."

She finished her laughter and stretched. Her joints cracked as she bent backward and grasped her ankles. Milo gaped at her inhuman dexterity and at the surprise flash of skin. Her stomach rumbled. She straightened up in a flash after flashing him, and turned red She looked at him and said softly,"Gosh...I'm sorry, Milo. I was upset and I said things I didn't mean. I was....," she blushed to her ears and finished," embarrassed. And stressed. AND still tired, too... in fact–I think I am still half-way asleep. At least now I know why I was always so draggy in the morning. Humans need their caffeine and coffee, right? Replicants are just 'popping fresh' "

She moved over to the open door and picked up the McDonald's sack and started to probe around in the bag .She smiled at him and asked chirpily ," What's for breakfast?"

They ate quickly and silently. They had injured their bond and were both careful of further damage to an already fragile feeling. Milo felt like he was missing something about Gadget's construction parameters . She was SUPERHUMAN in strength and speed and he NEVER saw anyone move like her in that fight. He had only a short look at the brain in the head next to him. He had no way to cushion the blow.

He finished his breakfast and sat studying his finger-nails until Gadget said,"Mmmm?"

He said without preamble," You should be dead.."

Her ears folded down and she hissed out,"Excuse ME!?"

He flinched at her cutting tone. He looked at her and said with a tremble in his voice,"You didn't...erm...see your brain. I mean your OWN brain. I did. I recognized the signs in the Corpus Callosum and in the cerebrum of linear silica-organic build up similar to the 'Silicon Plague' of 2068 that killed half the human-beings in the world over a five year period. There hasn't been another incident of the plague in the past decade.

" It killed my mom and dad. My dad went homicidal and then had a heart-failure and died My mom went crazy ,then lost her sight, hearing, feeling --then died of respiratory arrest. The space-born parasite from that Lefrene comet in mid-2067 was responsible . You heard of it. "Wormwood" is the name Matamoras called it and the whole world caught it and ran with it.

"Biblical prophesy didn't cover the madness and death of the 'Silicon Plague'.Most who got it died. Some of the survivors were crippled, mad or blind from the scarring on their brains. Most who survived had silicon implanted in their brains that acted like...implants. Cybernetic implants. He said....I mean good old Max Matamoras said he was inspired by what he saw to come up with the Doorway-CPU and O.S. The more silicon that was implanted, the healthier they USUALLY turned out.

"Maybe the comet had something to do with it. Maybe it was a space-ship and the little aliens told him how to make people into cyborgs without the rejection factor killing them in the long-term."

Milo socked the console, hurting his hand and making Gadget jump.

He shook his hand and swore.

Gadget said nothing, just put a sympathetic hand on his forearm and gazed at him with a soft look .

"What we don't know will kill us,"he said grimly.

Gadget squeezed his arm.

Then:

Chase squeezed his hand and said with relief," Thank you for saving me from that mechanical moron." Chase Victor said and jerked her thumb at the UTX model 210 at the 'Employee's Only' entrance. Milo fought off the effect of the deja vu and of Chase's awesome beauty and straightened up and adjusted his jump-suit. She was a blonde, blue-eyed girl-next-door beauty from Texas and had scored very high in Cyber-psychology and Human Interface problems.

"Erm...uh...Yes. My name is Milo Finch and I'm a supervisor. Sort of ...anyway...we need your help to sort out a problem that just occurred.. I'll brief you when we get together with the rest of the investigation group", he finished lamely feeling like an ignoramus .

"Investigation? WOW! "Her face lit up hearing that,"Were deaths involved? What happened?" Her questions were excited and insistent. He flinched inside from her eager blood-thirstiness.

He took her bag and regretted it immediately . "You must be strong. Your bag weighs a ton! What do you have packed in there?" He looked about. No handy androids about when you need one, he observed to himself.

"Bricks . My dad was into masonry and I practice an old family hobby. I build fireplaces in my spare time",she answered with warm wit and a joking tone. "Some real books and my own PC. And some other stuff, too. All by the book. No infarctions ."

"Infractions?" He asked feeling the strain of her bag.

"No. Infarction. As in heart-attacks. Looking in my stuff won't give people heart-attacks if they work here", she remarked with a smile.

He frowned and looked serious. " I'm more concerned with you having a heart-attack once you get settled in. ....Or ME", he huffed as they got on the elevator. "Scooter level", he announced to the elevator system.

She gave him a hard and curious look. "Meaning?"

He was a bit slow in answering as they got off the elevator and mounted up onto a four-wheel scooter. Milo stowed her bag and they drove off into the subterranean labyrinth under Disney world. She looked at him and prodded him with,"Well? Meaning what? Tell me."

"This place is NOT like school at all. This is like the real world except through a fun-house mirror. Weird. You can debate Micky Mouse about the merits of Ghandi's pacifism here. Some of the replicant girls have female viewpoints and problems with men. Hang normallacy at the door and welcome to Disney World as run by UTX.", He said as he conducted her through the tech imagineer's labs to his workshops. He parked the scooter at a depot with six other scooters and went into a number of large workshops. He waved at Becky, who had a Goofy unit open and was busily replacing a number of ribs.

"Garsh, that really smarted ,too. I'll know not to lean on THAT rail again. Golly, that would have been awful for a guest to take a spill like mine! One of you regular human type peoples would have crippled up ..or worse!" Goofy carried on amiably until Milo got Becky's attention.

Becky and Goofy said, "Hey! Whassup ,Milo?"

Becky shook her head and Goofy laughed,"Oops, sorry Beckers!"

Becky smirked at Goofy,"Jinx!"

Milo rolled his eyes and said,"Beckers after you finish up with the Goof-miester, I need you in meeting room 101 A.S.A.P.. Where is Jerry? I ask afraid for the answer."

"I'll find him," she muttered in real irritation.

"Garsh..I saw him about an hour ago over in Toontown. Jessica Rabbit must need field servicing again." Goofy said to the wide-eyed shock of Becky and Milo.

Chase looked with amusement at both of the humans and at Goofy. "Well..." she began, "welcome to the sometimes real world."

"Excuse me, Chase. Keep Becky company while I make a call.", Milo said angrily and stormed into his office and slammed the door.

Outside the office, Chase said," Never a dull moment, I take it?"

"Right in one . We are short-handed and under skilled for a lot of tasks around here. Between plagues ,fires, floods and other crap...places like this one are low priority for most people except when they need relaxation and entertainment, then they SCREAM for it loudly.", Becky said slowly raising her voice to mask Milo's

Chase could just hear through the wall,"and you get here NOW DAMMIT AND YOU ZIP YOUR PANTS UP AND KEEP THEM UP!"

"Crap and more crap squared," said Becky philosophically.

Chase ran out witty retorts at that and she still had her mouth open when he came out of the office. His chin was set and his cheeks were flushed. He grumbled softly to himself.

The silence was a heavy weight until Goofy remarked in an even tone," Garly! It's strange to think how doing the right thing can hand a bunch of good people crap and more crap squared". He nodded and Chase looked like she had seen a ghost.

Becky nodded and sealed him up. "Alright, Goofy-One–You are good to go. Stop goofing about..OK?"

"Garsh, Miss Becky! I'd have to change my name then",he said reasonably. He put on his shirt and left the room with a wave and a smile. "Catch you'all on the flip-side."

Chase blinked and looked very young and pointed after Goofy and whispered in a loud voice, "Is THAT the problem you were telling...?"

"No,"said Milo simply. "THAT was weird. NOT a problem, though. That was....uhm....fairly normally weird. We have a REAL problem."

Jerry Reynolds rushed into the room with his tool satchel over his sholdure. He was flushed and grinned at them all and pronounced,"Hope that problem ain't me!"

Milo's cheek twitched.

"We have logs and camera records to look at...", Milo started and was promptly interrupted by Jerry.

"Whoa! Who is this? Noobie! Pleased to meetcha! I'm Jerry Reynolds, super-genius, and Olympic decathlon star, and all around ladies man."

Chase looked at him blankly like he was defective and said slowly,"AH-ha! Your reputation ...or lack there of precedes you. I'll try to over-look that anyway."

Milo interjected, "Lets go. Introductions in a minute. We need to stay focused. Or get focused."

Jerry said in irritation, "Hey! You folks shouldn't be talking about me behind my back! I'm just in touch with my humanity, is all." He smirked as usual. "Besides, How am I to know who is authorized to be here and talking with us? Hey! She's the new cyber-psychology major we begged for a couple of months ago, Isn't she? That's just great! Right in time!"

Eventually they got to meeting room 101 while Jerry suffered an excess of personality. Jerry told how Jessica Rabbit thought that a patron was stalking her and Jerry was there to take charge and call security to save the day when the poor joker showed up to woo her and sweep her off her feet and abscond with her over the sea-wall and so on.

He finally wound down from impressing everyone how capable and important he was, then Milo informed them of the 'Gadget" problem and what Dr' Fairweather said to him. They then watched the records from the cockpit recorder of the incident in question in silence.

Milo brought up the house lights and looked around at them all.

Jerry said, "Hellfire. I still don't see the problem. She didn't want to be handled and gave Billybob there the brush off," he waved a hand as if to brush off invisible lint and continued, "but we can't have the babe-bots bopping the dudes when they get 'friendly', can we? I'll get on the reaction and human-interaction sensory tests and set up for a full spread of quizzes . Great. That is ten hours worth of work before they link up for midnight-memory share. "

Chase was ashen "Jesus. That was ...I don't see...." She suddenly snapped into focus. "We have to segregate the Gadget units IMMEDIATELY and conduct blind interviews with each one of them. Gawd...it'll take the better part of a day just to do up the questions. We can't let them link up! If they share memories—Oh my GOD! It could spread to the others if it hasn't already. I better get on it."

Becky said while clenching her hands together ," I 'll set up the Venker tests and standard response tests to ping their CPU's and route sub-routine commands. It is possible that a bios corruption in one of them might be to blame. Remember Robin Hood? Simple but complicated. Lordy." She rolled her eyes.

Jerry laughed and Milo smiled and shook his head in disbelief. "Yeeaaaaah, bios! " Milo said with some irritation. To Chase's quizzical glance, Milo said, "The little fox-guy thought he WAS Robin Hood.. He wanted to rob from the rich and give to the poor and other such things. It was a form of cyber-psychosis affecting him. We had to physically subdue him. He wasn't actually dangerous, but he was running around the park and threatening people with a bow. THIS is a lower priority than that . ...But still....this is different. This is an 'Out-of-character' fault. One of the androids lied to a direct question and that is troubling. That is what we are investigating . Well people...lets get on it. I'll call the 'Gadget' units in and we'll collect info...",he trailed off as Chase emphatically interrupted him.

"No, we can't do that!" They looked at Chase quizzically. She continued, "We have to collect them QUIETLY. We can't let them know that they are in danger of discovery. We collect them one at a time and segregate them singly in holding areas. We treat them like collaborators and watch them for other aberrant behaviors individually . We don't want incorrect behaviors spreading to the other units in the pod, do we?"

Jerry smiled at Chase and said in a low and insinuating tone,"Hey. I like you. You are good looking as you are smart and DAMN, you're brilliant! I agree with Chase here. We have to do this on the QT! Jeez...we can't let the guilty one know. She might take hostages or run off or who knows what" Jerry sounded almost serious and sarcastic at the same time. Milo hated that about him.

She looked like she was about to bust out laughing and Milo rolled his eyes in disgust. "Right, Jerry! OK..Chase, you are right. I'll collect all five of them and bring them back here. Come on ,people...Let's move like we have a purpose."

They moved.

Milo considered getting security to accompany him to collect the units, but discarded that idea as sounding like overkill. He checked with Minerva, the Disney info-net Artificial Intellegence and located the units in the park.

The holographic interface of a Grecian goddess of wisdom appeared in the center of the table above a map of Walt Disney World. She spoke in low dulcet tones,"As per usual procedures, the units are spread all over the park.

"Let's see where they are. Five is still flying the 'Ranger-Wing', One is eating in the replicant mess-hall below the Grand Floridian Resort, Two is in Micky's Star-land at Toontown–unspecified purpose , Three is meet and greet on Main-street, USA. and four is over at Epcot on shepherd duty with a group of Chinese tourists, ", Minerva read aloud.

"I'll collect them in order and bring them in ,I guess", Milo said eagerly. These weird problems were what he lived for. The others nodded and went about their individual tasks as he exited out to the scooter depot. Milo snagged a four wheel scooter from the depot and took to the underground road.

Disney World had hundreds of miles of underground installations and roads to connect them all. Under every attraction from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to 'Spaceship Earth' there is underground storage and basements and workshops for hundreds of Disney imagineers and now storage for hundreds of robots and animatronic androids and replicants in replication of beloved Disney characters. The main difference between animatronic androids and replicants, is that replicants are cyborgs. Living tissue over android endo-skeletons and Doorway-CPU driven computer wet-ware brains. The replicants have artificially grown medical-quality flesh and eat to power their bio-systems while powering up their internal motive-systems next to external broadcast power antenna. The ability to eat real food made the 3-P-R type replicants able to interact with patrons at an unprecedented level.

Milo was looking at the recharge seat that Gadget-1 was eating in. He was still struck by it's unnecessary complexity. She ate in a large mess hall silently with about a dozen other replicants. He was creeped out by the silence in which they ate and how they ALL looked at him when he came in. They ate a nutritious paste the look and consistency of wall-paper paste. Milo speculated that it probably was the same taste as wall-paper paste.

Oddly enough, Gadget-1 put down her spoon and dabbed her mouth on a napkin and stood up as he approached her. "Good afternoon, Mr. Finch. We need to talk." Her eyes flicked left and right. "Outside, if preferable."

He looked right and left as well. Doc, one of the Seven Dwarfs , locked eyes with him in a moment of unreadable expression. It left him wondering about a good many things. None of the Seven Dwarfs sat together to eat. All the characters in the hall sat apart from others in their pods.

He hated that term. 'Pod' made them sound like pod-people or whales. All it meant was the group of the same characters that synchronized memories each night at midnight to six A.M. each day while Disney World was shut down. Gadget sat with Doc, Gyro Gearloose (from Ducktales) and with Peg, Pete's wife from Goof Troop.. It was a programmed response to scan and identify all humans in their scanning range. Underground away from patrons, Sneezy didn't sneeze but deferred to all personnel working at Disney World. Milo felt like he was surrounded by pod-people right now.

"See you all later," she said pleasantly to her dinner companions. They nodded and went back to eating without a word. They kept watching Milo to see if he had instructions for them.

Woodenly, he said to Gadget-1,"Let's go. Now." He turned and exited quickly, Gadget in tow.

He wiped the cold sweat from his face and leaned against the wall in the corridor outside the mess hall.

"What? What was that going on in there?" he stared at Gadget, who fidgeted.

She blinked in surprise. "Lunch?"

He sighed heavily and groaned.

"Mr. Finch...I want to come clean. I lied to a direct question earlier today. I was afraid. I was at fault. Please don't de-activate me and take my brain out," she finished in a heated passionate plea for her life.

He was so shocked he almost fell down. "What is this? That? What?" He gasped the torrent out without thinking about it. He stared at her goggle-eyed for a speechless moment and swallowed hard.

"Ah, uhm, well....that would not be a desirable outcome to this matter. Don't worry. We'll get you set to rights." he finished as awkwardly as he dreaded. He just told a machine not to worry.

He feared he was losing his mind. "You had better come with me."

He got her back to the workshop without further incident. He secured her inside a holding area for individual replicants and let her start recharging again. He couldn't resist the urge and asked, "Is there anything you need?"

Gadget-One shook her head.

Now:

Gadget-Four shook her head in irritation

"I need my clothes", Gadget said grumpily.

"I've got your gloves and boots. They ...uh...cut your clothes off. Sorry", Milo said in a muttered rush.

"Golly....that is just great", she remarked flatly. "Let me see. I am naked under this hospital gown."

"I noticed", he said turning red.

"I have no body-power reserves. My human-like bio-system is fine, but very weak and bruised and punctured. We don't have access to a recharge facility. UTX is hunting for us. I think that the police are as well." She shivered in the chill morning air. He got off his raincoat and draped it over her. She hugged herself and curled up underneath the long coat. "Milo....what are we going to do?" She asked in a plaintive, lost tone.

"I don't know. We have got to find out why UTX wants you. Why did they kept you alive? Why are you a Gadget Hackwrench? Who was those men with the machine guns in the workshop?" He looked at the energy panel of the Boeing air-car. "Where will we get a charge for this thing?"

"My body is not a 'thing' ,thank you.", she said tiredly.

"Oh....sorry. I forgot. Where will we get you charged, too?.",he said dejectedly.

" 'TOO' ", she muttered in irritation. "Glad to see at least I am on the 'things- to-do' list, even if at the bottom."

"You DON'T have to be such a BI–', he bit off his comment in anger. He was caught off guard by the up swelling of rage. "Don't be sarcastic with me. I'm not up for it, Gadget", he snapped at her.

"If we are attacked again now....we will both die. You have what? Maybe one burst left in your needler. I barely held my own against a Military Specification Chaser android. I have no strength left. I can't protect you. I can't protect myself. I am strong as a normal human and as fast right now. I wouldn't last two seconds against anything UTX throws against us. We can't trust the police. We need allies in the long run.

"In the short run....If I don't get fully charged and the air-car too....we won't survive. That is not sarcasm. That is the cold facts as they stand" ,Gadget finished in a flat tone of voice , all emotion squeezed out of it.

They sat morosely in silence behind a McDonald's outside of Macon, Georgia in a run-down unfinished sub-division. The cool morning winds rattled and scrapped the long weeds against the air-car's hull while they sat in silent contemplation of the cruel twists of fate that had thrown them into such awful situation. The morning sun started to burn off the pall of grey mist that cloaked them in the hollow.

"Your aunt is out-of-the-question. They will be watching her. If we seek her out..." ,Gadget was interrupted by the view-phone in the Boeing going off. The chime and flicker on the screen indicated an incoming call. They looked at each other in dread..

Milo asked ashen faced, "Do you think it's a surrender-or-die?"

Gadget shrugged and shook her head. She leaned back and put her hand on the wifi antenna area and nodded. He swallowed hard and activated the phone. He expected Dr. Fairweather or even Mr. Matamoras.

Jerry frowned out at him and said, "Hey, buddy. I don't know where you are, but you really need to turn yourself in. We all know you tried to break into an UTX hospital in Chicago last night. For god's sake, man–stop it now! You went crazy with that machine-pistol and killed some of your co-workers and now your obsessive behavior about that animatronic unit! Her brain is a PRIMATE's. Like a chimp or something. Man, accept it! She ain't human. She is really a cyborg chimp brain processor with tons of wet-ware and implants. She's an experimental once- off trial unit. I knew and Dr. Fairweather knew. Is that why you shot me and kidnaped Dr. Fairweather?

"Turn yourself in ,Milo! You killed three people and kidnaped a good man! Let him go, man, let him go and turn yourself in! Milo you're crazy and you need help. Just let Dr. Fairweather go and bring back the unit and we'll make sure you'll get some help" , Jerry finished weeping with a passion that Milo was sure was false as plastic flowers.

The blood had drained from Milo's face and he felt so sick to his stomach he was afraid of barfing on the screen. Milo wanted to punch him or come out with a witty retort that would sear Jerry's soul to ash and explain everything to whoever else was watching this video.

"Y-you lying bastard. You liar" ,Milo gasped out in a bloodless tone. He turned off the video with a trembling hand. Milo clutched his chest and sank back into the pilot's seat shaking with a complex turn of emotions. He was completely floored by this turn of events. Tears ran down his cheeks and he whispered out, "Oh, god. God...I--WE are so screwed. We are screwed. Totally, TOTALLY screwed! Jules.......Dr, Fairweather.. What did they do to you? I killed? I didn't..." ,he clenched his eyes tightly shut and muttered, "...dammit. Oh, damn, damn, damn!.

Gadget put a hand over her mouth and then put a hand on Milo's sholdure. "Golly ....that–that wasn't good. I accessed the IAI (instant access internet) through the wifi. Dr. Fairweather's vehicle wasn't traced. All they could tell was that we were in America somewhere. They couldn't trace the satellite-uplink I downloaded the specifications for standard robot recharging stations. I think I can adapt one with some parts from an electronic store and a soldering iron.",Gadget said in an uncertain tone. She was out of her element dealing with such naked misery.

"I'll look in the back to see what Dr. Fairweather has stashed. Gosh! Maybe a mobile workshop? We could stand a little good luck." She started into the back area then pulled her hospital gown down to a level of modesty. She turned red, keeping the gown closed by her left hand holding the back seam closed. She muttered in frustration, "A pair of pants wouldn't hurt either."

She clambered into the back wishing Milo would look. She had only seen one person look so miserable before. She tore her mind off of that thought and concentrated on the task of trying to find parts to recharge her power-cells back to full and maybe get the air-car back into the air. The back had boxes of tools and testing equipment and something she was looking for: an emergency recharge harness for replicants

"HEY! Golly, look what I found!" She announced victoriously.

Then:

"Look what I found!" Shouted Anvil Clay in surprise and irritation. He was a permanently rumpled man in a suit and was almost six and a half feet tall with thinning hair and bird-like mannerisms. He glared at Milo in contemptuous displeasure. "So? Is it true? You're going to pull all the Gadget units because one didn't want to have sex in front of airplane full of children?"

Milo skidded to a stop five feet in front of Anvil and fifty feet down the road in Toontown in Micky's Starland from Gadget-2 who was being photographed with some children. Milo rolled his eyes and muttered to himself,"Oh, crap."

Anvil strode up to him and stood nose-to-nose with him. The one thing Milo could NOT stand about Anvil was how he was a personal-space invader. Milo drew back as Anvil launched into his tirade. "You know, Milo, that I like you, but COME ON! You cut me out of the freaking loop this time. I am a SENIOR Replicant handler and in CHARGE of the Rescue Ranger pods! I have authority and responsibility senior to the technical staff. I was appointed a supervisor ten years ago and you were appointed supervisor when? Im sorry...you didn't work here ten years ago! What is wrong with you and this mad power-grab? You UTX people are all alike! I've worked here before the take-over when Disney values meant something!"

Milo responded at that jibe, "Anvil!" He hissed quietly. "Not like this in front of the patrons. I am NOT just a UTX employee. 'YOUR' Gadget units are acting pretty damned strange. As of this morning, I suspended their free-roam license and pulling the whole lot of their pod OFF-LINE to be re-evaluated effective immediately! Something is happening...",Milo was interrupted as Anvil got redder and angrier.

A small grief-stricken voice from Gadget-2 broke in. She was openly teared up and said, "Golly, Anvil....Mr. Finch... please don't fight like this over me in front of the patrons." Milo looked suprised and even Anvil was caught off-guard by this meek, humble looking mouse-girl fidgeting uncomfortable. "I'll come with you. Please stop fighting" ,she whispered tersely, her head down-turned, tears running down her cheeks.

Milo glanced about him at a couple of people who were trying not to stare at them. A couple of teen-agers in fluorescent clothes gawked openly. Anvil nodded. He whispered to Milo,"Sorry. You got my professional goat and we need to take this ..elsewhere more suitable. I think I..." ,he was interrupted by the shrill emergency tone of Milo's cell phone. As Milo picked up, Anvil's phone made a similar attention tone .

Jerry was shouting over it as soon as it connected, "MILO! Jeez-sus! You gotta get over to the Discovery Island side of the Contemporary Resort! From the sound of it–Gadget-4 just drowned a kid at a birthday party on a pontoon boat there. Security is en route to that location ! Jeez, get your ass over there quick!"

Apparently Gadget-2 had been listening in to one or both conversations and when Anvil gasped in shock and shot Milo a look over terror suffused with shame, Gadget-2 said loudly with an angry look, "She wouldn't do THAT! EVER!" and before either could react, sprinted off in the direction of the Contemporary Resort as fast as her short legs could. That was considerably faster than an unmodified human.

"God", Anvil shouted and tore off into the parting crowd after her.

"STOP! WAIT! " Milo's shouts had no effect on either one and he ran off after the two of them. Milo had run some track in college, but he was out of shape and the half-mile sprint to the far side of the Contemporary Resort almost gave him a heart-attack. As it usually happens, the only available Segway people-mover got snagged by Anvil. He and Gadget-2 stood around an aspirating Gadget model who looked mostly drowned as Milo ran up onto the scene. She was flanked on either side by armed security. Gadget-2 was slapping Gadget-4 on the back to get her to cough up water.

Chinese Secret Service and American Secret-Service were present on the scene and they eyed everyone warily while UTX 210's manned the crowd, pushing back the curious. An ambulance aerodyne rose skyward with a blaze of lights and sirens. Several people stood about talking to the Secret Service people of both nations and pointing to an upper floor of the resort where a newly-wed couple were looking out from their broken balcony window.

He spied the why of the Security. He spotted the aged Chinese woman at the center of the storm. The Chinese ambassador seemed unhurt as he jogged up out of breath. She was a tall thin woman with angular features and long iron-grey hair worn in a single braid.

Anvil pointed at him and smiled and waved with a huge grin on his face.. That brought Milo up short and left him in a grand state of utter confusion as a senior U.S. Secret Service agent came up to him ,flashed an I-D badge and said, "My name is Agent Johnson, United States Secret Service. We're told by that man over there, who is identified as one Mister Anvil Clay, a senior supervisor here, that you are in fact. in charge here. Is this correct?"

Milo glared heatedly at the smug bastard grinning at him while nodding his head at Milo like a bobble-head doll. What WAS he so damned smug about? One of the Emergency responders came up to Gadget-4 and put an oxygen mask on her face. The sight of that bothered him.

"They're programmed NOT to go into water deeper than they can wade. Except for the mer-folk and some other specially engineered ones. They sink like rocks! They can't swim. Their bodies are to dense. They don't float. SHE can't swim." he gasped out in amazement, and still breathless from his run.

Gadget-2 stood up and stared at him with burning intensity across the 60 foot distance and nodded at him. She then sat down next to the unit number four and put an arm across her shoulders .

"Well then...Good job, Mr Finch" , said the stern man with mirror-shades. Someone owes you or HER their life.",he nodded towards the Gadget-4 with the oxygen mask on. "It's just ...well..a bit odd, don't you think? A robot with an oxygen bottle? Make sure she doesn't rust. Good-day ,Mr. Finch" He said and walked over to his contemporaries to tell them what he had learned.

Milo tiredly jogged over to the two Gadgets and Anvil and the gaggle of armed security stood by at. Milo asked in breathless confusion, "What? What in HELL.... is going on here? Why ...guns? Would somebody tell .......me what happened here?"

Anvil said insinuatingly ," You Know..Milo...about what you said just a couple of minutes ago? Just maybe....we need to talk some place more....uhm, PRIVATE!" He turned to Gadget-2 and said gently,"Honey, nearest exit?"

She stood up and pointed to a pair of black panels in the bottom wall of a short building just 10 yards away. "It leads down to junction 10 and 21"

One of the security men said to Milo," Sir? We confiscated this firearm from this replicant.",He pulled out a peculiar looking revolver with a smallish grip formed from a u-shaped bracket and a kind of take-up spool like a fishing reel. He didn't recognize it, though Anvil did.

"That's Gadget's harpoon pistol from 'Lady Mouse'. From back in the 2060's. I told you clowns—that isn't intended as a weapon! It is a working prop!" Anvil argued, waving his hands around.

The security man shrugged and shook his head. "Sir–it doesn't matter! These are ONLY used with permission AND ONLY in authorized places. We have standard operating procedures! She is a rogue! They were pulled from operations this morning by order of Milo Finch and the pulled replicant discharged a firearm! It must be terminated as a danger to the public as per article 1210 of the general rules in the employee handbook. There are no stated exceptions.", said the security guard sullenly. "Personally I think it sucks that we have to shoot her for saving that boy's life."

Both Gadgets looked at other in horror and shivered. Number four buried her face in number two's neck and sobbed in fear. "I don't want to die. Please." It sounded to Milo like a young girl begging for her life. "It's not fair."

Milo interjected angrily, "NOONE is shooting anyone! We will continue this downstairs. Please copy all the surveillance videos and any vid's from any patrons who might have seen anything of use."

"Come on," he said sullenly as well. This had turned into a first order disaster for him. He had to meet with Dr. Fairweather as soon as humanly possible.

"What do you mean that Jules Fairweather is GONE?" Milo was stricken. Dr. Fairweather's secretary was a Daisy Duck model from the first line of bio-ware bodies that UTX produced a decade ago to replace the all artificial units produced fifteen years ago. The first bio-ware bodies interacted with the Doorway-CPU's in unpredictable ways til they got the bugs worked out. Daisy was a defective duck. Her left hand trembled uncontrollably as she waved both hands widely.

" He was called away on UTX business in the Yucatan. He left fifteen minutes ago. He isn't available! I'm sorry, Milo", she said helplessly . "He said you have to view your mail. He left you the keys to his air car."

"WHAT? How did he get to the Yucatan? We have a ....SITUATION! I don't have the authority to deal with this! He is the Chief Operations Officer for Walt Disney World, for crying out loud!" Milo felt like he had fallen off into the deep end of the ocean now.

"Mister Matamoros sent his personal transport for Mister Fairweather. It was strictly on the QT and on a need to know basis.," she said as she pulled out a drawer. She handed him a floppy chip. The four inch by four inch UTX matrix storage sheet was the 2080's answer to the DVD and CDR technology. Paper thin and capable of storing over a thousand gigabytes of information in its shock and magnetic proof format.. Paper-thin and cheap as paper, they secured UTX's place as the information technology powerhouse that bought up Microsoft , Dell, IBM, Firestar and almost all the other program houses and computer manufacturers in the world.

"You know the old joke, don't you, Milo? 'When Mister Matamoros says jump...' ", Daisy began.

" '...God asks how high?' Yes, Daisy. I heard it.", Milo said sourly as he took the floppy-chip from her soft white hand. He couldn't help thinking it,'why does a duck-girl have soft white hands?' He shook his head and felt tense. "I just have a ...bad feeling about this. I can't explain it. Let me know if he contacts you."

"Uhmmmm, good luck, Milo. I know he believes in you." She sighed and went back to working on requisition forms and resource allocation forms.

He turned and left, pausing at the outer door for a moment and looked at Daisy-1. She looked worried. She stopped and looked at him.

"Anything else, Milo?" She looked at him intently.

"No ,nothing, Daisy. He'll be fine," he said feeling weirdly hollow inside.

Daisy smiled and he left. He felt so weird talking to her like a real person. She was a made thing, he told himself He still related as if she was real. SHE looked like a duck-girl, he was very afraid that Gadget's more human look would affect him more.

Maybe it already had.

The bright lights hurt Gadget-4's eyes as she continued her debriefing. "We left Space-ship Earth in Epcot Center and I conducted the tourist party to the next stop along on the itinerary to a rented pontoon-boat where the Lady Fu was celebrating her 89th birthday. She related to me that she remembered the New Rescue Rangers from the 2020's but grew up with the originals in sub–" she paused as Jerry interupted.

"Fascinating! Can you get to what HAPPENED?" Jerry huffed and fidgeted and even Milo shifted around uncomfortably. Milo glanced over at the clock on the wall which read 11:35:02 P.M. They had been at it for nine hours and going was slow.

Becky said gently to Gadget-4, "Four, we know why her Ladyship wanted you to conduct the tour. That and she wanted to see first-hand what American and Malaysian technology had come up with. OH BOY! She got an eye-full !" She broke off and glanced about the crowded room.

Becky glanced at Chase, Milo, Jerry and Anvil. Behind Gadget-4 was Ricky from Security and an UTX model 210. Becky smiled and shook her head,"Sorry. Lost focus for a moment. Four! You arrived at the pontoon-boat–what happened then?"

Becky got up and went over to the table where they had coffee and doughnuts at. She poured herself a huge mug of coffee and waved the pot at everyone and raised her eyebrows.

Jerry held up a hand and a cup. Chase frowned and remarked,"No way! I'm about to float away." She looked pleadingly at Milo and asked in a wheedling tone ," Hey, big boss? Can we take a break? I know you know best, but it has been NINE hours..."

Milo was tired too, but he said while rubbing his face,"No, I'm sorry. Not right now. We'll break after mid-night. OK?" Milo stopped and looked at Becky and exclaimed,"What in hell are you doing?"

Becky froze in mid-pour over Gadget's cup. It was half-way full of coffee. Becky looked at Milo quizzically and asked slowly, "Look. I am tired and might be missing something....but –what?"

"Employee guide-lines! Don't give mind-altering substances to replicants! Caffeine! You know? The number one drug of choice for the whole freaking world?" Milo sounded shrill at the end of his tirade. Becky's eyes had narrowed to slits and she frowned.

Jerry smirked at him and shook his head. Anvil said quietly, "Milo...perhaps YOU should switch to decaf?" Anvil looked at him disapprovingly and shook his head.

"Mr. Finch, you can have my cup of decaf if you want. I'm just thirsty. Can I have some water?" Came Gadget-4's quiet question.

Becky remarked sharply,"Why, YES-sah, Mistah Finch–I sure do know what the 'Employee Handbook' does say! It's the DECAF pot. All you had to do was ask! Milo–you sir are NOT being very people-friendly!"

Chase jumped in, an raised her voice, "PEOPLE! Don't self-destruct!" She put a hand to her forehead and sighed with her eyes closed. "People–we looked at HOURS of video from a hundred different angles and we can't tell what...", she looked down at one of the piles of paper prints in front of her and continued,"... Fu Wing, age 11 , sex :male....fell over. He was on the outer edge and fell in. Four jumped in. She rescued him. We need to find out from her, what happened from her perspective. We are all tired and stressed out and don't want to screw this up." She trailed off helplessly and looked at Milo.

Milo nodded and sighed. "You are right, Chase. We keep drifting off subject.." He turned back to Gadget-4 and said, "Keep the coffee. If it is decaf, no problem. You approached the pontoon boat.... and?"

Gadget sipped the decaf and cleared her throat to continue. Milo frowned at the all-to-human mannerisms she had. She began again simply, " We came up to the pontoon boat and I directed everyone to the bathrooms and offered to aid Fu Ming, that's the boy's mother, with him if she required it. She decline it. I really wanted to help. He was...not like anyone I had ever interacted with before. He was special and I don't mean in a disabled way either.

"I never met ANYONE with Lefrene syndrome so young. Most I ever dealt with were twenties or thirties in age. They stood around and looked at him when he wanted, but I knew what he wanted."

Chase interrupted, "What do you mean, 'KNEW'? "

Gadget-4 looked blankly for a moment and said with a slight smile,"Golly! To have knowledge of through observation, inquiry, or gained information. To be sure of something. You know? Knew. I observed–inquired and then gained information from. Knew! He–he liked me. He said so."

Jerry said,"WHOA! Hold on a minute! The kid has the shakes and can hardly text a message and on top of that--he is mute! How did he tell you diddly-squat?"

She frowned. After a moment she frowned and said,"I can't tell you."

The room was silent for a moment, and then exploded in noise as EVERYONE tried to ask different questions simultaneously. Milo jumped up and waved everyone to silence . He asked intently, "Do you mean 'CAN'T' or 'WON'T'? "

"I don't have the words to explain it. It was like the mind-link from hard-line access during the nightly memory synchronization with other pod-members. Except...it wasn't. Maybe it was ....instinct?" Gadget-4 asked fumbling about for words in the explosive verbal mine-field she suddenly found herself in.

The room exploded louder this time. Anvil was wholly in Gadget-4's corner, Jerry was shocked and put off, Becky was excited with the new discovery and burbling questions so fast noone could answer , Chase was asking about dreams or something, even Ricky got in on this and was asking about prior occurrences. Gadget's ears folded down and she looked small and lost.

And afraid. Very afraid.

Milo angrily slapped the table with his hand it made a loud 'BLAM'. Everyone flinched. "SHUT UP! Everyone just be quiet!"

Gadget flinched and teared up. The tears spilled down her cheeks and her ears twitched. She trembled. Chase acted without thinking. She got up and went around to Gadget-4 and hugged her and said softly, while stroking her cheek and looking into her face,"It's ok, honey. No one is mad at you."

Jerry stared in disbelief and burst out laughing, Anvil looked satisfied and nodded, Becky put a hand over her face and Ricky stood there with his mouth open. Milo closed HIS open mouth and clenched his fists and asked with laser-like intensity, "Chase? What in god's name are you doing? She is a mechanism! You know–a robot with bio-components and very sophisticated software? Now YOU of all people are treating her like a person! Can you ACT like a professional?"

Chase stood up and turned red as she turned on her heel and swung to face Milo. "I AM a professional! If it acts like a human–treat it like a human, but never forget what it is! I treated it like a human! I know what it is! Why don't you treat ME like a human? Hunh?"

Milo felt his face heat up as he turned red in turn. He opened his mouth to speak and he knew he was going to be shrill.

"Gosh--Maybe...you should ALL switch to decaf?"

Gadget-4's off-the-cuff comment caught them all off guard. Even Milo had to laugh at that. The tension somewhat subsided in the room. People sat back down and breathed a bit deeper.

Milo took a deep breath and said levelly, " Alright, folks....we are almost through for the night. IF we can manage to get through the rest of Four's debriefing with out getting off track AGAIN! We need to ask what happened. Not about weird things to the side. If they seem important–make a footnote on your PDA transcription and we'll get back to it...tomorrow probably."

He fell back into his chair in a tired slump. Chase returned to her chair and Milo prodded Four with a question," You offered to help the kid in the bathroom–the mother turned you down–then what happened?"

"I was signaled by Minerva, the Disney central computer, to put on a personal flotation device since I was scheduled to go out on one of the lagoons. I was already talking with Cherry McLancaster, the part-timer working at the Contemporary Resort, to do just the same. She attached it to my web gear under my jacket. She noted that I had the harpoon pistol and did a check with security as per standard operating procedure", she said plainly in a professional manner.

Ricky interjected,"That's when we became aware of a potential problem with a firearm violation. We already interviewed Cherry McLancaster and she seemed very nervous, but that is probably due to her being a new employee."

Chase muttered sourly, "Can't imagine! I'm new and a bundle of nerves now ,too!"

Becky nodded as well.

Gadget-4 giggled and Milo made a noise to her to continue. Gadget-4 took a deep breath and did so. "I donned the personal floatation device and rejoined the tour. Elapsed time away from tour was less than two minutes, thirty-six seconds. I helped get Fu Wing into his Segway disability transporter to get him up onto the boat.. We departed the Contemporary Resort dock at 12:51 P.M. At 12:53 , Wing was placed in a chair at the end of the boat , next to his Grand-mother. I was at the other end of the boat at 12:59 when I saw Wing stand up. He seemed agitated and appeared to lose his footing and slip off the end of the boat.

" 'WING! Man OVERBOARD!' I shouted and ran to the other end of the long pontoon boat. The boat coasted to a stop as the motors were cut. Several male relatives dove overboard to search and rescue Wing. They complained about not seeing him in the murky water."

"I activated the personal floatation device and pulled down my goggles. I noted then that the P.F.D. was defective and NOT deploying. Wing was going to die. I hyperventilated, did an estimate of where he would be if he sank at the same speed as myself, then over-rode my basic programming restraints by redirecting my personality overrides and leapt thirty-five feet to the spot he went under at."

"I sank quickly, but could see due to the goggles. The water was fifteen feet deep at that spot and he was unmoving on the bottom. I spotter an UTX model 2201 Sea-scraper remotely-controlled drone on the bottom next to Wing . Operational condition, I think It took me over a minute to strip off his exo-skeleton. ",Gadget-4 was interrupted by Becky.

"Explains why he was naked when the ambulance arrived", she remarked looking stricken. "My god. I didn't know he couldn't float." Becky glanced around and went back to her read-outs. Jerry gave her a peculiar look and made notes in his PDA.

Four continued, "I then propelled us to the surface as quickly as possible. I gulped air and then drew the harpoon pistol. I sank when I did so, but it was his only chance. I went to full overdrive in character and fired the pistol at the top-floor of the resort building and thumbed the take-up reel active."

"I aspirated water as we came ashore. I was unable to perform rescue breathing on him, but luckily Gadget number two was there to perform rescue-breathing on him while I performed CPR until the Rescue Rangers...OOPS!" She smiled warmly , batting her forehead with a closed fist and continued while several people laughed at her all-to-human mistake of phrase. "I meant 'Rescue Responders' could get on scene with an lung-bag and oxygen. They put him on the ambulance and that was that",she finished with a small measure of pride in her voice. "I'm so glad he didn't die."

Jerry jumped up and exclaimed angrily, "Jesus! If any son-of-a-bitch wants to shoot her for that, I'll quit in protest and tell the media! You just watch me!"

"Jerry, sit down" ,Milo said tiredly,"Nobody is to be shot! Period. I have authority from Dr. Fairweather to make that so. If I had known that number four was dressed out in Full regalia and that included a prop...a working prop pistol! I would have done something different to round up the Gadget units. This 'lets shoot Gadget for rescuing someone' fiasco IS my fault for going to gung-ho on an investigation involving these very units."

He waved a tired hand at them and said yawning,"We'll convene in the morning after we put this unit in the individual recharge tank for the night. We'll look into THIS morning's activity tomorrow morning. The number of weird things have multiplied exponentially in this investigation."

Gadget-4 stood up and looked uncomfortable. She cleared her throat.

"Mr. Finch...I want to come clean. I lied to a direct question earlier today. I was afraid. I was at fault. Please don't de-activate me and take my brain out," she finished in a heated passionate plea for her life.

Jerry exclaimed in exasperatered surprise,"Oh Holy CRAP!"

Becky complained, "I have a headache and a Deja vu!"

Milo experienced a deja vu from earlier in the day. He slumped back in his chair and covered his face in his hands and groaned, "OH my God! I didn't just hear that?"

Now:

He looked at her in stupefied amazement and sighed , "Oh God–I didn't hear that right?"

Gadget was covered head to foot in a white sheet, with a slit cut for her eyes and was wearing her gloves and boots. She had donned the recharge rectenna harness and cable-connector under her impromptu 'chador'

She giggled and said, "Ahem–I am a Mouslim! Great disguise to get me inside the Micky-Dee's, hunh? I only have to get to the recharge closet for their robots and plug in! It should be in the corridor going to the bath-rooms. Should be relatively simple. Right?"

He groaned and sighed,"We're all going to die." Then hid his face in his hands.

After a moment he said,"OK, come here....I need to tie your ears down." He retied her head-dress and said,"This is looney. You will be spotted. This is looney!"

One of her legs seemed to twitch. She remarked, sounding more upbeat than she felt, "Don't be such a downer, Milo. I know you're tired. We can't give up."

"Fine", he said with a sinking sense of finality. He had never felt more helpless or hopeless in his life. He looked out at the trees and blowing weeds and said," I'll wait here."

"Look, Mr Finch! I suggest you use your intellect to come up with a plan. I am not with out resource. The Chinese ambassador's grandson owes his life to me. Maybe we could run to China for help? It isn't a great idea...but it is something to work on. How about the U.S. Government for help? I mean...we really didn't do anything. Think of something! I'll be back as soon as I can. Let me have your free cash card. I'll pick up lunch for us" ,she said urgently.

"You must have been some kind of pushy, driven woman while you were alive. I mean while in your original body. You know what I mean. Sheesh." He finished feeling particularly muddle-headed. He was growing to appreciate her drive and not giving up.

She chortled and nodded, "You bet! I'm just running on a 'WWGD?' You know...'What Would Gadget Do? ' Golly–I'm not sure that any of my original personality is left. How would I know? I have been synchronizing with three other replicants for over three years and adjusting memories during link-up! I'll be back." She took Milo's No-owner cash-card and slipped out the door.

She shut the door behind her and started through the field of weeds as high as she was. After a moment he thought of something and flung open the pilot -side door and stuck his head out and yelled after her,"What if you get caught? HUNH? WHAT THEN?"

He saw a little hand in the distance wave and disappear into the weeds topping the rise behind the McDonald's. He closed the door and slumped into the seat. He checked the power-level for what seemed the hundredth time. One take-off and landing at a flight distance of 20 miles or one minute of hover left. They could lengthen that if they chucked everything in the back and add maybe another ten miles of level flight.

He didn't know what they might need out of the back. He was so tired, he couldn't think clearly. He put on the floppy-chip and played his last message from Dr Fairweather.

Doctor Fairweather looked worried and looking more like his age of sixty. He fidgeted for a moment and spoke in his deeply resonant voice,"My boy...I have been called to the UTX headquarters in the Yucatan. Things are unraveling. Listen to me ,Milo. I've left my authority to you until I return. The keys to my special Boeing Air-car are in your IN box at the Employee Mail Post-office. It is very fast, very...special. Be quick about your investigation of those units. You are running out of time on this. I wish this hadn't come out this quickly. Choose your friends carefully but don't trust them. He can buy the moon and carve it into dust. His power uses him now without regard for the 'little' people. He has opened Pandora's box. He will want the key to the box back. You are a good man. You have your faults, but you can be a hero if you do what good men do. Follow your heart. Farewell, Milo Finch", he finished with the finality of a man going to his death.

Milo played it two more times and didn't understand any better than he did originally. Jules had left him a dozen pass-codes as well. He became convinced that the message was edited for content. Either key-words had been deleted or added. If he wanted to say as much as possible without detection...key-words were deleted. What was he trying to tell him? Milo was afraid he would go to his grave never knowing what was going on. He knew it was worth a lot. It was a life and death matter.

Gadget entered the fast-food restaurant ,her determination steeled. She got some curious and some hostile looks as she came inside. The girl behind the counter looked at her with a frozen smile and said, "Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?"

She froze up momentarily by indecision. She said in an undefinable accent,"Bathroom please?"

"Around the corner. Just follow the signs.....uh..ma'am", the counter-girl said uncertain of who she was addressing.

Gadget went around the corner and followed the signs. She passed an elderly couple and a bunch of young teenagers. She passed a service robot waxing the floor. It was a UTX model 212 which looked like a series of barrels on their side topped by a number of arms and a head with four eyes in a 360 degree field of vision.. The blue and silver machine purred along past the older couple and she passed by a teenaged server cleaning a table, who nodded at her and stared as the disguised Gadget entered the bathroom corridor.

She went into the woman's room first to clean up. She checked the stalls and went into one. Later, she went up to the sink ,stashing her gloves in her belt and was washing her hands when the older woman came in. Gadget panicked inside and tried not to shake as she continued to wash. The older woman came up to the other sink and washed as well.

"So–you're an Islamic? You're pale ,too. Are you American?"

Gadget tried to keep her voice level and said ," Yes, ma'am.."

She finished and decided not to put on her gloves. She willed herself not to run. The woman continued," You have the largest blue eyes I have ever seen. You must be a pretty little girl. You won't show me your face, will you?"

Gadget wondered for an instant if the old woman would have a heart-attack if she did show her face to her. Did she have a living Grand-mother? Is this her? A mother? A family? She turned to the white-haired woman and said, suddenly overcome with sadness,"No. I'd...get into trouble. I'm–I'm sorry. Thank you, ma'am."

"Dear, what's wrong?" The woman was filled with concern and care.

Gadget paused, torn between telling the truth, weeping in self-pity and lying. She compromised and said,"You just remind me of my Grandmother. I haven't seen her in years. I miss her. I'm sorry. I better go. Good bye. ...And thank you, ma'am for bringing back memories."

The woman came over and suddenly hugged Gadget. Gadget's heart leapt into her throat at that and she just locked up. The woman was startled at feeling the rectenna beneath Gadget's faux chador.. The woman held Gadget at arm's length and stared at her intently. Gadget thought at warp-speed. The woman asked in a careful voice,"What's this? What do you have on under this robe thing?"

"Ah..uhm..exo-skeleton! Lefrene's Syndrome. Born with it. I have trouble moving The chador helps me blend in..", Gadget gasped out in a rush of half-truths and mis-statements that were sort of true, only if you knew the whole truth.

The woman looked so sad, Gadget wanted to cry as the older woman said sadly, " My grand-daughter, Kayla, died from it. You poor thing. I KNEW something was wrong with you, the way you sort of stumbled and staggered in. You have it bad or.." , she drifted off in an unspoken question.

Gadget had a brainstorm. She said sadly to the woman,"My batteries have run down. I am new around here and far from home. Is there a place I can recharge around here?" The woman wouldn't leave her alone, but this might give her an 'in' to use the recharger in peace and legitimately too.

The woman smiled and said,"My name is Tiffany Williams. I live no more than a block down the road in the Lavergne subdivision. Larry and I haven't had visitors in a long while. We have a caretaker to clean up around the house . You can over to our house and recharge your Exo-thingee. And sit down and relax. We won't hurt you."

She was really torn to run off with the grand-motherly woman, but said,"I wouldn't make it. I don't want to be carried."

She laughed and said," That's alright. We might be kidnappers or such. Come with me. Wait."

"What is your name?"

Gadget thought for a moment and said, "Trixie Hansmaus."

"Alright, Trixie, Come with me."

The woman marched 'Trixie' out of the bathroom and up to the counter. She explained plaintively and begged for a recharge port. The people behind the counter were happy to oblige 'Trixie''s handicap and brought a chair around to the closet where the recharge port was at and sat her down. Gadget fished out the cord and plugged the three pronged ,220 volt plug into the receptacle, careful to flash anyone a naked leg, free of exo-skeleton . The game would be over then.

'Trixie' turned to Tiffany and said, "I'm going to nap for a couple of minutes while I recharge. Can you make sure I'm not disturbed?"

The woman looked at her husband who said ,"We'll do what we can."

Gadget teared up and choked out, "Thank you, Larry and Tiffany."

She set her internal clock for a five minute cycle. She fell asleep for the five minutes of recharge she was hooked up for. It was an autonomic function that she was slave to. She dreaded it.

She woke up with a start. Tiffany was holding her hands counting fingers. "They're artificial", Gadget exclaimed, in explanation. Tiffany looked surprised.

"So are my eyes. There isn't much left of the original me. Sorry. I should have been more honest. My ...",she thought for a moment how to take advantage of this situation and help Milo ,too. She couldn't just abandon him. She continued,"...BROTHER, Jason is sleeping behind the restaurant in the field. We've been on the road for days... if your kind offer is still open to recharge at your house...I could sleep on the floor, while I recharge my dead cells and he could watch over me. Please....we wouldn't be any bother. I'm at ...let's see",she checked her internal power reader and announced,"one half of one percent total power. That is enough to wake ..Jason and go to your house with out being carried.", she wheedled as best as she could.

Tiffany said,"You could also use some clothes and a bath and a warm bed and a hot meal. You and your brother could stay with us over night and leave in the morning." The older woman looked at her husband, Larry.

"I suppose so", he gruffly remarked. He was stern looking and very tall.

Gadget threw her arms around Tiffany and chirped," Oh, thank you! Let me go get Mi–brother!" She grimaced from almost slipping up so handily. She released the old woman reluctantly and ran to go get Milo. "I'll be right back! Just wait!"

Tiffany looked at her husband and said ,"She is awfully strong for her size."

"Diamond" ,He said to her, using his pet name for her,"...are you sure about this? They are strangers!"

"Teddy-bear...they are kids in need. It is only for the night. Besides...you are an ex-detective with Atlanta Police. If they're dangerous...YOU'll know " She had the weirdest feeling that she had met the girl somewhere before. She knew that voice from...somewhere. It would come to her eventually.

Milo was shocked and surprised, to say the least, but in turn desperate. "Are you CRAZY, Miss 'I'm-actually-a-little-mouse-girl'?!"

"Milo–I have a really good feeling from these people. We should try this. ...Unless of course you have come up with a brilliant plan in the mean-time?" Gadget either sounded hopeful or sarcastic or both. Milo was to tired to care.

"Let's do it. I hope for a warm bath at least." He muttered softly "If this works–you scored really well for us, Gadget"

"Trixie Hansmaus. The German version of the 'Gadget Hackwrench isn't well known, Jason. ....My brother." She giggled.

He frowned and gathered up their meager possessions and left the air-car. He turned on the camouflage feature and it faded into the weeds. He sighed,"After a week, the batteries will die and it'll be more visible. Unless someone discovers it in the mean-time."

"You live in a bleak world, Milo", she said as she shouldered a small bag of tools.

"Allah Akbar and such" , he said sullenly following along behind her. "I have to get in practice, not being a practicing 'Mouslim'.".

She was still giggling when they met up with Tiffany and Larry. They exchanged greetings and walked over to the older couple's house in the Lavergne subdivision. It was a two hundred year old Victorian house that looked very dilapidated . The yard was being cut by an older model I.B.M. model 23 caretaker robot.

" HEY!" Milo exclaimed in wonder and remarked admiringly,"You never see these anymore? Why not a newer UTX model?" He looked at Larry.

Larry pondered while they walked up to the porch and said quietly,"I hate those UTX bastards. I don't like them and I certainly don't trust them at all."

Gadget a.k.a. Trixie said with a knowing smile in her voice, "We don't either! Some of them are very bad!"

Milo whispered to Gadget," We're just staying the night? Right?"

Gadget gave him a dirty look, and in they went.